SCB water pump houses turn anti-social dens by night

HYDERABAD: In the absence of night guards, water pump houses in the Secunderabad Cantonment area are becoming hubs of anti-social elements. From theft of water to consumption of liquor and revelry these activities are becoming a commonplace at all eight of SCB’s pump houses. Ever since a man had fallen into one of the water sumps about six months ago, there has been a demand for installation of CCTV cameras.

The SCB’s water and sanitation department has a strength of 36 permanent employees and 38 outsourced employees. But its has not deployed guards at the pump houses. From these eight pump houses, the Cantonment Board supplies about 65 lakh gallons of water a day to the 4 lakh residents under its jurisdiction. Among the eight, the pump houses at Picket, Marredpally, Lothkunta and Karkhana are in a very sorry state.

While water is collected in these huge sumps throughout the night, it is released for residents in the day time. “The ground storage sumps are open all the time and, at night, anti-social elements choose the place for drinking. Residents have lodged several complaints with the SCB but nothing has been done to stem the rot,” said B Anitha, board member. According to her, the SCB needs to focus on distribution of water as even after having adequate water available, residents are unable to get water on alternate days as promised. The elected ward members raised the matter at the recent quarterly general body meeting, following which Malkajgiri MP Ch Malla Reddy assured to instal cameras at all the pump houses.